markwayne mullin

There are 10 open cases being considered by the House Ethics Committee that have been made public. (Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call File Photo).

The House Ethics Committee acts confidentially and typically uses minimalist language to announce whether it is investigating a member of Congress. This makes tracking open cases difficult, but there are 10 cases the committee has previously stated it is reviewing. The committee has no rules compelling it to make a public announcement that a review has been closed, sometimes resulting in a delay in a case's resolution coming to light — though members certainly have an interest in publicizing something that reflects well on them.

Derick Brock, right, from Mercy Chefs helps a man fold a flag he found in the debris after the May 2013 tornado. (Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images File Photo)

OKLAHOMA CITY — This is a state that knows what it's like to recover from a disaster.

From the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, to the destruction wreaked by two of the largest tornadoes ever recorded tearing through its suburbs, there has been a thread running through the tragedies: Oklahomans pull together .

At any given time there are always some members of the House of Representatives who find themselves in the need of having to pay for attorneys and legal services. In some instances, a member may have been dealing with the House Office of Congressional Ethics or the House Ethics Committee, such as Reps. Andrews, Bachmann, Bishop, Grimm, McMorris Rodgers, Mullin, Owens, and Schock.

In the first quarter of this year, here are some of the large payments.

Freshman Rep. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., might have collected outside earnings in 2013 that exceeded the cap for sitting members of Congress as he maintained a relationship with his business that he was supposed to largely sever upon being elected to office, the House Ethics Committee divulged on Monday.

The bipartisan panel announced that it would continue to review whether Mullin violated House rules before determining whether to launch an official investigation.